Gutters and downspouts are mounted on most residential and commercial structures along the lower edge of the roof of the structure to receive water draining off of the roof, such as during a rainstorm. Gutters come in many different styles, including K gutter, half round gutter, or commercial box gutter, but all are generally formed with an open top through which water is received into a trough or channel that delivers the water by gravity to a downspout for discharge away from the building structure. Gutters are often mounted on a plurality of hangers that are spaced along the length of the gutter and fastened to fascia boards by nails or screws such that the gutter is suspended from the hangers. The downspout is connected to an outlet of the gutter to provide a conduit to drain the collected rainwater from the gutter for discharge along the surface of the ground and direct the rainwater away from the building structure.
Typically, the downspout is provided with an elbow at the discharge end thereof to direct the discharged rainwater into a generally horizontal direction away from the building on which the downspout is mounted. These elbows at the discharge end of the downspout have a short length and are only effective to provide a direction for the discharge of the rainwater away from the building; therefore, the rainwater is often discharged too close to the building and the discharged rainwater can find a way into the basement of the building to cause cracks or leaks. Splash blocks can be provided to receive the discharged rainwater from the downspout elbow and help direct the rainwater away from the building. Other attempts to divert the rainwater from downspouts include a non-flexible extension, which is typically a generally horizontally disposed piece of downspout affixed to the discharge end of the elbow, and a flexible downspout extension that can be bent in a desired direction to redirect the discharged rainwater.
Occasionally, a landowner will bury into the ground a drainage pipe or conduit for conveying rainwater to a remote location, such as a groundwater restoration cistern, or at least some point remotely distant from the building. The downspout is then connected to the drainage pipe by the downspout extension so that the rainwater is discharged at a location that will not infiltrate into the basement of the building. Once such downspout extension can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,813,701, granted to Christopher Noble on Sep. 29, 1998. The Noble downspout extension is formed with multiple adapter portions at each end of a flexible central portion. The adapter segments at the respective ends of the downspout extension are separated by a cut line to allow the installer of the downspout extension to separate the outwardmost adapter segment from the downspout extension so that the inner adapter segment could be utilized to connect to the downspout. The Noble downspout extension is formed so that the adapter segments at one end of the downspout extension will be capable of fitting into the corresponding adapter segment at the opposing end of the downspout extension so that multiple downspout extensions can be hooked together in a serial manner.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,041,825, granted to Christopher Noble on Mar. 28, 2000, the downspout extension was formed with multiple adapter segments at each end of the flexible central portion of the downspout extension. More particularly, the adapter segments begin with a large rectangular configuration on the outwardmost ends of the downspout extension followed inwardly by a smaller rectangular adapter segment and then inwardly a smaller circular adapter segment. Each adapter segment is separable from the inwardly disposed adapter segment by a cut line so that the outward adapter segments can be removed. Accordingly, when the outwardmost adapter segment was utilized to connect to the discharge end of the downspout, the rainwater, and any debris entrained within the flow of the rainwater had to pass from a larger adapter configuration into a smaller adapter configuration, thus forming a restriction on the flow through the downspout extension.
A differently configured flexible downspout extension is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,017,614 granted on Mar. 28, 2006, to Stephen Handley. In the Handley downspout extension, one end of the downspout extension was formed with multiple rectangular adapter segments arranged in decreasing sizes from the outwardmost adapter segment to the innermost adapter segment, while the opposing end of the downspout extension was provided with circular connector sized for attachment to a circular drainage pipe or conduit. Thus, one end of the flexible downspout extension is formed for connection to a downspout, while the opposing end is formed for connection to a drainage pipe. As with the Noble downspout extensions, the connection of the downspout to the outwardmost adapter segment causes the flow to be constricted through decreasingly smaller adapter segments before reaching the central flexible portion.
Low profile downspout extensions are known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,862,632, granted to Eric M. Zima on Jan. 26, 1999, in which a telescopic extension is coupled to the discharge end of the downspout to direct water therefrom to a remote location. The rain chute disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,202,358, issued on Mar. 20, 2001, to Lawrence M. Janesky, also provides a low profile apparatus for conveying water to a remote location from the downspout of a building. A low profile conduit connectable to a downspout discharge is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,458,532, granted on Dec. 2, 2008, to W. Haynes Sloan. The structure of this low profile conduit requires a reinforcement member at the transition area between the circular connector and the low profile rectangular conduit.
It would be desirable to provide a low profile downspout extension that is configured to connect to either 2×3 or 3×4 rectangular downspouts and transition into a low profile rectangular conduit that can be located below landscaping without providing reinforcement members. It would further be desirable to provide a low profile downspout extension that is extendable incrementally to provide a conduit of desirable length.